//------------------------------//
// 2 Unintended Consequences 
// Story: Of Potions and Passions Untold 
// by Bronyxy 
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The next morning, Applejack rose early as farm ponies do, and was surprised to see that her hooves had turned white and the tip of her tail looked as if it had been dip-dyed purple.  She looked at what she saw, unable to fathom quite why her trademark orange coat and blonde tail were not as they had been last night.  Now, it was true to say that she and Rarity had, well, buried their differences following Twilight’s sleepover and were now getting on a whole lot better than they ever had before.

“Well, white coat and purple sure go well on Rarity” she said to herself “But on me it just looks plain creepy, if you ask me.”
Applejack set about doing her chores, and soon her hooves and her legs were covered in mud, so nopony could tell what colour she was underneath.  Fortunately.

Next up was the immaculate Rarity.  She stepped daintily out of bed and trotted the few steps to her mirror to see how she had fared following the night’s sleep.  She stopped suddenly, pupils turning to pinpricks.  She lifted a forehoof and looked at it closely.  It was orange.  It shouldn’t be orange; it was white yesterday, she would swear to it.  Each of the hooves was the same.  Orange.  She made as if to scream, then stopped herself abruptly.  She didn’t want anypony coming in and finding her like this.  No, that would never do.

Rarity focused and her horn started to glow as she cast the vanishment spell that she hadn’t used since her school days.  It had been useful then because she had received her cutie mark before her friends, and to avoid jealousy she had learned this spell to pretend she was a blank flank until her friends caught up with her.  With a little bit of focusing and a bit of effort she felt the familiar tingling feeling wash over her as her colour returned to normal, but her cutie mark also vanished.  Tutting to herself, she set about painting replacement cutie marks on her flanks with makeup, and as she was bent around doing this she caught sight of the blonde tips to her tail.  Would her troubles ever end?

She couldn’t possibly re-apply her cutie marks if her tail needed dying, so she mixed up some mane and tail dye and then soaked her tail, cursing every minute this process was delaying her.  Downstairs, the smell of her sister’s cooking was wafting up to assault her nostrils, not the aroma of exquisite cordon bleu refinement but the dark clouds of burnt offerings.  She was supposed to have been down sooner and prepared breakfast for them both, but resolving these blemishes had taken far longer than she had anticipated and in response, her eye started to twitch.

She knew she couldn’t leave her tail part way through its colouring process, so she had to grit her teeth and pray that she would still have a kitchen left when Sweetie Belle had finished cremating her groceries.  Finally the dye had taken and she was able to condition and dry her tail, but re-applying the cutie marks would have wait as she ran downstairs before the boutique burned down.
“Oh, hi Sis” greeted Sweetie Belle wearing a satisfied smile in the knowledge of a job well done “You were late up so I thought I would do us breakfast.”

Rarity’s eye twitched again as she opened all the windows to let the smoke out.  Then she looked at the charcoaled morsels that had once been food, smoking mournfully on her plate and really tried to keep her temper under control.  This was not shaping up to be a good day.
“Uh, Sis?” queried the younger sibling “Where has your cutie mark gone?”
This was all she needed right now.

Quietly she got up from table, delicately tucked her chair away, raised her head high, tiptoed elegantly back upstairs, entered her bedroom, closed the door and threw herself onto her bed for a good cry.  The boutique would be late opening today.

Twilight Sparkle awoke and trotted down to do breakfast for her and Spike.  Books were everywhere; last night’s study binge had left its usual trail of chaos throughout the library and Spike hadn’t yet got up to put things straight.
“Pancakes” she thought ”Yes, pancakes – that would be perfect.”

She set about cracking the eggs and then suddenly noticed that her hooves had turned a light shade of blue, very reminiscent of a certain pegasus marefriend.  She stared open-mouthed at her discovery.
“Umm, Spike” she said tentatively “Got a minute?”
“Breakfast done already?” he asked.
“No Spike, I need you to look at something for me.”
The baby dragon traipsed into the kitchen looking at the ingredients on the side and how far Twilight had got in preparing breakfast.
“No Spike”  sighed Twilight in exasperation “Over here.”
It took him a little time to notice, but when he did he commented:
“So what’s with the new look then Twilight?  Dying your coat to look like Rainbow Dash?  Oh, and I like that rainbow flash on your tail too …”

Twilight was mortified.
“What do I do Spike, what do I do?”
“You could finish dying the rest of your coat and tail.  Oh, and your mane too - it suits you.”
“Oh, no no no no no!!” she cried and ran upstairs.
“Oh well” said Spike “Looks like I’m doing breakfast then”.

Rainbow Dash was late up as usual.  She went through her rather casual morning routine and flew off to perform as Ponyville’s weather pony with the minimum of delay.  Once she had finished her duties she did some flying practice and then landed in the village to see what was going down.  She saw a purple and white striped helmet crouched low over a set of handlebars kicking up a trail of dust and gave a little smile; her protégé was clearly just as keen as her to be noticed for her speedy skills.
“Hey Rainbow Dash” said the orange pegasus filly nonchalantly, skidding to a stop just in front of her idol.
“Wassup little buddy?” came the reply.
“Oh, I’ve just learned an awesome new trick” the orange filly continued “I go down this hill really fast, hit the take off ramp and fly through the air, jump over Applejack’s cart an then land the other side.  Pretty cool, huh?”
“Nice moves, kid” said Rainbow supportively, moving in to give her a playful noogie.  But then she stopped abruptly.  She had suddenly noticed that her forehoof was lilac – lilac!  She settled for a rather unexpectedly subdued hug instead and then pulled away to check out her other hooves.  Sure enough, they were all lilac too!

Rainbow gave an indecipherable excuse and shot off to the privacy of her home where she could take time to check herself over.  Sure enough, her cyan hooves were now lilac and the tip of her tail had changed to purple and pink. She tried to wash it off, but no chance; in fact it even looked like it was growing more pronounced.  In desperation, she dug out some rainbow coloured leg warmers and put them on; that would have to do for now.

Twilight emerged from her bedroom wearing spats over her hooves.  They were smart, but a little old fashioned.  When Spike saw her, he collapsed in a fit of laughter.
“It’s not that funny Spike” said the exasperated librarian.
“Where did you find them?” he asked in between giggles.
“They’re very fashionable if you must know” replied Twilight defensively.
“Maybe, but not in this universe!” he shot back.
Twilight stomped off in a huff and left her wise-cracking assistant to breakfast.  She had to get answers, and there was only one place to do that.

Twilight arrived at Zecora’s hut to be greeted by the friendly zebra.

“Hello Twilight, please do tell,
I hope Fluttershy’s recovering well.”

“It’s not her I’ve come about Zecora; it’s this” said Twilight removing one of her spats and also showing the tips of her tail.

“Oh my, what’s this I’ve spied?
I think we’d better go inside”

Zecora quickly checked her inventory of potions and shook her head.

“Oh that Pinkie, what has she done?
She took a bottle, but the wrong one”

I should have watched her, I am remiss;
She took it from that end not from this.

Tell me straight, if you dare,
Do you love a certain mare?”

Twilight blushed and looked at the ground self-consciously before nodding.
“Rainbow Dash and I, we’re kind of an item” she said bashfully.

“I thought as much, for the potion that’s gone
Is Heart’s Desire, and that’s very strong.

If it’s been mixed with the coat restorer,
Your colour will change to the mare you adore.”

“What?” Twilight cried.

“The colour will continue to grow
Until you are changed from top to toe.

It starts at the hooves then up the legs,
Over the body up to the head.

Only once fully covered will it fade
And put an end to this charade”

“Oh no!” gasped Twilight as she visibly sagged “Then it could be the same for Rainbow too!  We’re both going to change colour completely before we return to normal?”
Zecora nodded.

“How long does the whole process take” she asked, her voice getting more shrill.

“It’s not exact, but my best guess for you:
At least three weeks to work its way through.”

“Is there anything we can do?” she exclaimed, a note of desperation in her voice.
Zecora shook her head.

A thought crossed her mind in a flash; what about Applejack and Rarity – could they be as romantically involved like she was with Rainbow?
She knew Rainbow would definitely be affected, so she had to make her first priority; then she could think about the other two afterwards …

She flew around trying to see if her marefriend was taking a nap on a cloud as she usually did at this time of day, but upon finding nothing, she went round to her cloud house instead.  She knocked, but there was no answer, so she used the key that Rainbow had given her and let herself in.
“Rainbow, it’s me Twilight” she called.
“Oh Twi” said the slightly startled pegasus “I – I wasn’t expecting guests”
“Rainbow, we need to talk.”
“It – it’s not really convenient right now, you know.”
“Yes, I do know” said Twilight reassuringly “Let me guess; hooves and tail?”
“How’d you know?” replied the weather pony.
“Come in here, we’ve got a lot to talk about” said Twilight.

Twilight explained and Rainbow face hoofed at the prospect that she would lose her trademark cyan coat and rainbow mane and tail for a short period, but was reassured that it would come back afterwards.
“Hey, I love you Twi” said the pegasus “And you know I’d give you anything, but I never thought that meant my awesome rainbow colouring!”
“Just think of it as a loan” said Twilight “I promise I’ll take good care of it till you get it back.”
The two marefriends shared a cuddle together as they projected how this colour swap would go over the next few days and decided that they would continue what they usually did rather than hide away, as both felt they didn’t need to hide their love.

Twilight realised that they had not been the only ponies with Fluttershy when the mix-up happened, so Rainbow volunteered to explain to Applejack whilst Twilight would go to Rarity and they would meet up at Sweet Apple Acres.